London, England (CNN) -- The longest match in tennis history finished on day four of the Wimbledon Championships as American John Isner finally beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 70 games to 68 in their epic five set first round match.

After 11 hours, fives minutes and 138 games in the fifth set Isner finally broke Mahut's serve to conclude a 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 victory in front of a packed crowd on Court 18.

Number two seed, Rafael Nadal beat Robin Hasse on Centre Court, but not before experiencing a mid-match wobble. Dutchman Hasse took the French Open champion to five sets, and at one stage led the Spaniard two sets to one.

But Nadal powered back in the fourth set taking it to love and eventually won 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-0 6-3.

"I knew before the match that he is a very good player. In the first set I was trying my best on the return but I couldn't do anything," Nadal said, reported AFP.

"I was very good mentally, but playing against him is always a challenge. "On a fast surface like grass all matches are very close. I was close to losing," Nadal added, according to AFP.

Under normal circumstances, 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga five set win over the Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov would have been described as epic.

But in light of events out on Court 18, the Frenchman's 6-4 6-4 6-7 5-7 10-8 second round victory out on Court 2 seemed merely routine.

Earlier in the day, Britain's Andy Murray coasted to a straight sets victory over the Finn Jarkko Nieminen, 6-3 6-4 6-2 in front of Queen Elizabeth II, who watched the number 4 seed from the royal box.

It was the monarch's first visit to the All England Club since 1977 when she was in attendance to see Britain's Virginia Wade win the women's title.